Daily Dining - Seared Tofu with Black Bean Salsa

 

This was last night's dinner. I actually did not make this simple yet delicious meal. Sean made this simple meal for us to enjoy. Lately, I have been eating incredibly unhealthy and then two nights ago it hit me that I could not do it anymore. I felt so disgusting eating (buffalo wings) that evening. Sean talked me into starting all over and doing a reset. I am trying to cut down my crappy eating by focusing on healthy food. I am going to put together a weekly menu of the food we eat and hopefully I can add the recipes to it from there.

I love tofu, believe me I do. I can live off of eating this everyday, but it has to be prepared differently. Otherwise, to me it would be eating the same meal everyday. I don't plan on eating or living off of tofu daily, but I plan on incorporating it as a huge part of my diet. My main goal is how many different ways can we cook tofu. How many different ways can we prepare it and serve it?

I am still debating if I should start a new fitness blog or just incorporate it here. Decisions, decisions..

Pork Sinigang (Filipino Sour Soup)

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Last Sunday my friend Erika and I got together with the kiddos to have lunch together and go swimming. I offered to make Sinigang and Lumpia to go along with the soup. Erika has never made Sinigang before and wanted to learn. I will talk about the lumpia that she help make in another post. Sinigang is a Filipino soup or stew characterized by its sour and savory flavor most often associated with tamarind (sampalok). It is one of the popular viands in Philippine cuisine. This dish is one of the very few Filipino dishes I know how to whip up.

I grew up in a Filipino household, but was never completely fond of all the Filipino dishes. Throughout the years I became aware of the very few dishes that I enjoyed. I made sure that I knew how to make it myself. I have also made this dish in a Vegan version. I will post that recipe some other time as well.

This is so delicious with rice. You can cook this soup with shrimp, fish, beef, chicken, or tofu.

[yumprint-recipe id='4']This is so easy to make. The only part of it that becomes time consuming is the boiling of the meat. The reason that I boil it first before cooking it with all the vegetables is to get rid of that odd pork flavor. I want to make sure that all the excess fat that can be boiled off will be removed. You can also add more veggies to this such as daikon, potatoes, spinach if you do not have pechay and so forth. I used what I did because I did not find what I needed to at the grocery store for this recipe.

I used a pack and a half of the tamarind packet because I prefer it to be extremely sour. However, you can control this by putting a little at a time. You do not have to have this soup extremely sour or spicy, but it is preferable that way.

Thanks to my friend Erika for helping me make the soup. I was in the process of giving Sean's sister a haircut and since she wanted to learn I took advantage of that, ha! I was directing her along the way. She seemed to have done perfectly fine. It really is not a difficult dish to make.

here is a picture of the kiddies as they were waiting to eat before they went swimming. Of course we waited for a bit before they took a dip. They didn't last very long since they had food coma! ha

Grilled Portabello and Garlic Pasta

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This is my go to pasta recipe! I absolutely enjoy making this because it is extremely simple. Most of the time you can find the ingredients in your pantry. If you do opt to try this and go to the store you would not be spending much to make this meal. However, it is heavy on the garlic and onion side, but if you want to add less that works too.

The great part of this recipe is that if you are not a big fan of mushrooms just add any other type of protein you prefer. You can add a seared steak to it, perhaps grilled chicken breast!

My favorite part of cooking is making recipes that people can enjoy or they can add or take away from the recipe if they don't like something I used. I know not everyone will enjoy having this as a vegan option, but the great part of it is if you are experimenting into turning vegetarian or vegan this is an easy meal to put together at home. Plus it looks fancy as well so you can easily impress that special someone!

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Battered Curry Cakes

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Curry happens to be my favorite meal to eat. I absolutely enjoy Korean and Japanese curry the most. We have bunch of spices that we use for Channa Masala at home (which is also delectable) and decided to add those flavors into my curry cakes.

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Chicken Katsu (No Sauce) Recipe

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You're probably wondering why I made a recipe without the sauce. The evening I decided to make this I wasn't craving the savory sauce or dip it goes with. I promise that I will make the sauce soon and post the recipe soon. Chicken Katsu isn't complete with the original sauce that it comes with.

I have also added this to my recipe list. I am slowly trying to put together a bunch of recipes and hopefully in the near future I can think make an E-Book.

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